Yes, it is possible to floss too much. While flossing is an important part of maintaining the health of your teeth, flossing too much actually damages your teeth and gums. The signs that you’re flossing too much are:
- Red, irritated gums
- Bleeding gums
- Lower gum line
- Cavities near the bottom of the teeth
Flossing too much can greatly harm your gums and teeth. The more you floss, the more likely your gums will become red and irritated. Your gum line can also be damaged by too much flossing, which exposes more of your teeth to bacteria, so you are more likely to develop cavities near your gum line.
How Much Should You Floss?
To keep your teeth and gums healthy, you only need to floss once a day. If there’s something caught between your teeth, definitely use floss to remove it as soon as possible. However, you don’t need to floss between every tooth more than once a day.
How Should You Floss?
How you floss is just as important as how much you floss. Flossing too much becomes a bigger problem if you’re flossing wrong. Here are some common flossing mistakes you should watch out for:
- Flossing too hard. Flossing too hard means you’re making sawing motions are forcing the floss farther than necessary to clean your teeth. Flossing too hard makes it more likely for your gums to become irritated and cause gum disease.
- Not flossing both sides of each tooth. When flossing, you should move the floss along each side of each tooth. If you don’t scrape the plaque from each side of your teeth when flossing, you’re more likely to develop cavities between your teeth.
- Not using a new section of floss for each tooth. Make sure to use a fresh section of floss for every tooth. The whole point of flossing is to remove the plaque from between your teeth, and if you don’t move to a new section of floss, you are reinserting the plaque you just removed from your teeth.
Regularly flossing is crucial to keeping your teeth and gums healthy. Not flossing at all can lead to gum disease, cavities, and other nasty teeth issues. However, flossing too much can also lead to gum disease, cavities, and nasty teeth issues. Burg is also here to help your children have a healthy smile!
